V2C1 Part1

Translated by Mlzkzr Edited by Mlzkzr

When each head told the story about the school trip to the students in their respective countries, complaints erupted.

“I don’t want to go to Absolute!” , Blaze says.

“It’s ridiculous to put Blaze in our territory!”, Absolute replies.

However, President Greenwood,

“Its purpose is to encourage mutual understanding between the students of the two countries, which don’t get along well. Besides, our enemy is the Northern Demons (Tempest). The front line of it is in Absolute. It’s a path that cannot be avoided.”

told the students so.

As expected, they couldn’t object any further, and the students reluctantly agreed to go to the Absolute Empire. Two days later, they boarded a ship prepared for each of their countries, and left the port of Grandia.

They were led by Principal Greenwood, Fatima Nefer-sensei of Dark Magic, Klaus Ulrich-sensei of Ice Magic and Northern Demons(Tempest) Theory, and Lyre Allgood of Earth Magic and Historical Geography.

By the way, the Blaze’s ship was being led by Fatima-sensei.

“Ey, from here on, sensei is going to give us some warnings”

On the deck of the ship, Haruto looked at Fatima-sensei, who was in charge of the activity in front of a total of 30 Blaze students, as if to nudge her.

Fatima-sensei, however, was frozen in place with a blank expression.

“Sensei? What’s the matter”

Then, Fatima-sensei stretched out and whispered in Haruto’s ear as if to talk in private.

“……What? Don’t bother the sailors. Do not fight, and please behave in a manner that is not embarrassing to the students of the academy…… is it?”

Then, all of the Blaze replied with “A’right” and “Got it”.

Fatima-sensei nodded satisfactorily as she moved away from Haruto’s ear.

“Oy! Don’t make me tell them, tell them yourself!”

When Haruto shouted at her in an irritated voice, Fatima-sensei shuddered. Tears began to well up in her eyes.

“Hoy, Haruto! Don’t bully Sensei!!”

“What a poor thing!”

The blame was focused on Haruto.

“Me!? It’s my fault!?”

While feeling unreasonable, he,

“I’m not mad, and I didn’t mean to yell at you. I’m sorry.”

for the time being, added a follow-up.

“No…… but, I wonder if this is how we will strengthen our bond …….”

Then, she added things that he couldn’t understand well.

At any rate, the four ships set sail.

Going down the river in the Absolute territory, they pointed ahead to the imperial capital.

Fatima-sensei had warned them about this, but it was hard to say that it was effective, and there was no end to the number of students who got into trouble during the trip.

In particular, there was a loud fight between the Blaze and Absolute in the town where they stopped for the second day to rest.

At that time, there was some debate that the school trip should be canceled, but it was continued somehow.

And finally, on the evening of the third day——,

“So, this is the Imperial capital…… Ice Gulls.”

Haruto roamed both banks of the river, and muttered as if overwhelmed.

There is a large forest made of brick and stone buildings. When he thought that this was a palace, it turned out that it was just a communal residence for citizens. They all had elaborate designs and a sense of unity.

Such a cityscape continues endlessly. Haruto is also impressed by the sheer size of the imperial capital.

The city of Grandia was, of course, much more massive than the capital of Blaze.

“It got cold after all.”

Claude, who came up to the deck following Haruto, put on the sleeves of his jacket next to Haruto.

It’s mid-June now. In Grandia, it feels like summer is approaching, but the air in this Imperial City Ice Gulls is cool and chilly.

Compared to Blaze and Grandia, Absolute has a much lower average temperature. From the cities on both banks, white smoke is rising everywhere as if to emphasize it.

“That’s a steam coming from heating, isn’t it. They either burn wood or use magic to boil water. There’s a pipe embedded in that building, so I guess they circulate hot water to keep themselves warm.”

“You know a lot.”

Claude smiled as he repositioned his glasses.

“Knowing your enemy is the first step in the art of war. I’m very grateful for this school trip.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. This is a rare chance to get inside the enemy’s heart and explore what’s on the inside. We might be able to find the other parties’ weaknesses, and we might be able to get in touch with people who are unhappy with the status quo. If we do that, we might be able to turn them over to us.”

With a pleased smile on his face, he said something harsh.

“Haruto seemed to be on board with the idea of going to Absolute from the beginning, though?”

Behind his glasses, Claude’s eyes shine.

“Ah. In our home country Blaze, all they talk about is dissing Absolute, so I don’t know what kind of country it really is.”

“As expected of Haruto. The masses, are satisfied with blindly looking down on their enemies. And the country’s upper echelons want that too.”

“When you get to know the other party …… sometimes, you can find out unexpected facts about them.”

Claude gave a cold smile, and repositioned his glasses.

“Wouldn’t you rather let me know? The dumber the people are, the easier it is to manipulate them.”

“When you think about it, how did this school trip got approved?”

“Well, isn’t this an ex post facto* report? It’s not normal for us to leave two days after us students have been notified.” (TN: Done, made, or formulated after the fact)

I see, the reason for the hectic schedule is to avoid the interference on one’s own home country —— Haruto was convinced so.

“So? Claude, what do you think of the Imperial Capital of Absolute?”

“That’s right…… if we could channel fire magic through their heating pipes, we might be able to set them ablaze all at once.”

Then he adds, as if remembering something.

“Ah, let’s not do it. Right now.”

“We’ll do it someday?”

Haruto replies with a wry smile.

“Generally speaking, we’ll just be gathering information. That being said, I don’t think the Absolute will allow Blaze to move freely, so within the scope of sightseeing ……we shall act so.”

The day after tomorrow morning, they will leave for the northern border. Just a single day, they can only see the Imperial City tonight and tomorrow. And tonight, an audience with the emperor is waiting for them.

They’ll become the first Blaze citizens to meet the emperor in person.

The other side may be fearful of assassination, but there is no guarantee that they will make it out alive either. They could make up some random charges and took them into custody. They could be taken as hostages and used as a bargaining tool with Blaze.

“Anyway, don’t let your guard down.”

“Indeed…… oops, that’s the dock.”

On the right, I could see a dock. When he thought so, he heard some graceful music. Apparently, they even prepared an orchestra to greet them.

Perhaps lured by the sound, a girl with long black hair, Kyrie, and the rest of the students also came up from the cabin to the deck.

“What, what!? What’s with the fuss?”

“Oh! Have we already arrived!”

Claude controlled the excited Blaze students with his hand to calm them.

“Keep calm, and as a member of Blaze’s crew, try not to look too ugly to the Absolute.”

“Tha,that’s true…… I don’t want to be looked down.”

“I guess…… I don’t want people to think that I’m happy to come to the Imperial capital.”

Haruto left Claude in charge of organizing the students and stared at the Absolute’s ship leading the way. When their boat arrived at the pier, there was a loud cheer.

Looking at it, there is a square in front of the dock, and people are gathering there as if to fill it up. There are probably no less than 10,000 people.

“Eh, what, what? Are they welcoming us?”

Kyrie’s face, which was tightened for a moment, quickly loosened.

An on and off boarding ramp is erected on the Absolute’s ship.

The moment a figure appeared on the ramp from the ship, the music played by the orchestra became heroic, and the enthusiasm of the audience peaked its heat.

“Iris-samaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”

The one who appeared, was Iris Sylveene.

She is the first princess of the Absolute Empire which is here.

“Our Princess Irisssss!”

“The Ice Fairy! The beautiful flower of Absolute!!”

Iris dashingly crosses the ramp and lands on the dock. Francette, with her luggage, also follows her across the ramp.

The people gave generous praise to the figure of Iris in front of them.

“Ah…… to see her in person ……I can die already.”

“You’re incredibly beautiful. ……Iris-sama.”

“What a dignified appearance …… Iris-sama is the pride of our empire!”

In response to such cheers, Iris gave a slight smile with a noble expression. She then raised her hand lightly to the assembled crowd.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!?”

“Uoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!”

That was enough to turn the crowd into a melting pot of excitement. Without the soldiers surrounding them, it can be feared that they would turn into mobs.

Even so…… she’s very popular.

Once again, Haruto felt reminded of the fact that Iris was a princess.

Iris and Francette climbed into the luxurious carriage, protected by knight escorts, without looking back at the other students. Then, their carriage started to run, and disappeared beyond the city streets.

And then, the orchestra stopped playing, and the crowd began to trickle out.

“Then, we’re going ashore now! Once we’re all there, we’ll start moving!!”

Principal Greenwood, who crosses the ramp, raises his staff and calls out to the other ships.

After that, the rest of the students disembarked in turn. They took their luggage and moved to their quarters.

Since they have no horse-drawn carriages, they all walk naturally.

〇〇〇

After leaving their luggage at a lodging house, they immediately headed to the palace.

The palace was in the center of the city, and within walking distance of the lodging house.

As they walked down the main street, the high city walls appeared in front of them.

They were checked by the guards guarding the gate, but perhaps they didn’t know that the pockets of their uniform were enchanted, they were able to go through them and get inside easily.

Sure enough, Claude is snickering.

“It will be too easy, isn’t it”

“……I guess”

Instead of thinking that it’ll be easy to attack, what if there’s an assassin who wants to kill Iris? Like that, his worries come first.

“Uwahh! What is that!?”

Kyrie raises a hysteric voice.

As soon as he passed through the gate and opened his eyes up, he understood why Kyrie was making such a fuss.

This place is a different world. The cityscape was beautiful, but this was on a different level. Buildings were lined up in such a way that one could almost say that this was a palace.

The walls and roofs have beautiful carvings and are gold-decorated. The lights, lined up like street lamps, are gorgeously sculpted and are glowing with magical light. Unlike ordinary lamps, magic stone lights are as bright as daytime. However, it should cost a lot amount of money to use so many expensive magic stones.

“It’s a demonstration of the emperor’s wealth. It’s magnificent.”

Claude said, sounding honestly impressed.

The stone pavement leading to the entrance is also made of blue stone, which is as beautiful as a jewel.

Both sides of the path were lined up with burly guards, who wouldn’t allow anyone to stray off from the path and look around on their own. If they made any suspicious movements, they would be cut down immediately.

Led by President Greenwood, the students proceeded solemnly in two lines and were ushered into the audience room.

The Absolute are in the front row. Next is Luminous, and then Horizon.

After a considerable amount of interval, Blaze’s students lined up.

And along the walls, there are the senior vassals in gorgeous costumes. And there are soldiers posted all over the place as if to provide security.

In particular, the Blaze is surrounded by heavily armed soldiers equipped specially with armors.

Of course, it was not to protect the Blaze students. The soldiers surrounding them, were pointing their spears at the Blaze students. Since they were being pointed at by the tips of unsheathed spears, the students felt like they were suffocating.

However, Haruto was more concerned about something else.

—— Where did Iris go?

Her figure wasn’t in the line of Absolutes which were lined up in front us. No way, don’t tell me…… she’s going back to her parents and not coming back to the academy?

A fanfare resounded as if to break Haruto out of his thoughts.

“It looks like they’re coming”

“Every single production is annoying……”

The soldier in front of them lifted his eyes, and stuck his spear into his chest.

“Yo……you bastard, that’s disrespectful——”

Haruto held up a finger, and put it on his mouth.

“The emperor is here, alright? Don’t make too much noise, or your neck will fly.”

“……Tsu!”

Ignoring the mortifying look on the soldier’s face, Haruto stared at the door ahead.

The door opened and a man in opulent clothes and a long cloak walked in.

That’s the Emperor ——huh.

His magnificent mustache, which seemed to protrude from his face, makes everyone feel the dignity of an emperor. However, other than that, he was very different from what they expected.

His height was close to 190 cm. His shoulders were broad, and his chest was thick. It was hard to tell from his gold-decorated costume, but he must have had a well-trained body.

They had heard that he was close to sixty years old, but he didn’t look like that. His chiseled face is wrinkled accordingly, but his eyes are shining, and he is exuding a surge of vitality.

—— The title of a veteran warrior seems to suit him better than Emperor.

(TN: Daddy, meet your future son in law)

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